Privacy is often overlooked in Hong Kong nursing homes with the majority of elderly residents living in shared bedrooms of three to five people. Only a few studies have used Bluetooth low energy indoor positioning systems to explore the relationship between privacy and social interaction among elderly residents. The study investigates the social behavioural patterns of elderly residents living in three-bed, four-bed, and five-bed rooms in a nursing home. Location data of 50 residents were used for the identification of mobility and social interaction patterns in relation to different degrees of privacy and tested for statistical significance. Privacy is found to have a weak negative correlation with mobility patterns and social behaviour, implying that the more privacy there is, the less mobility and more formal interaction is found. Residents who had more privacy did not spend more time in social space. Residents living in bedrooms that opened directly onto social space had higher social withdrawal tendencies, indicating the importance of transitional spaces between private and public areas. Friends’ rooms were used extensively by residents who had little privacy, however, the concept of friends’ rooms have rarely been discussed in nursing homes. There is evidence supporting the importance of privacy for social interaction. Future study directions include considering how other design factors, such as configuration and social space diversity, work with privacy to influence social interaction.

This study aims to measure the impact of bedroom privacy on residents’ social networks in a long-term care (LTC) facility for older adults. Little is known about how the architectural design of bedrooms affects residents’ social networks in compact LTC facilities. Five design factors affecting privacy were examined: bedroom occupancy, visual privacy, visibility, bedroom adjacency, and transitional space. We present a spatio-social network analysis approach to analyse the social network structures of 48 residents. Results show that residents with the highest bedroom privacy had comparatively smaller yet stronger groups of network partners in their own bedrooms. Further, residents who lived along short corridors interacted frequently with non-roommates in one another’s bedrooms. In contrast, residents who had the least privacy had relatively diverse network partners, however, with weak social ties. Clustering analyses also identified five distinct social clusters among residents of different bedrooms, ranging from diverse to restricted. Multiple regressions showed that these architectural factors are significantly associated with residents’ network structures. The findings have methodological implications for the study of physical environment and social networks which are useful for LTC service providers. We argue that our findings could inform current policies to develop LTC facilities aimed at improving residents’ well-being.

Purpose: Mobile service robots are increasingly adopted in long-term care homes to improve the quality of life of people with dementia. While increasing research has documented the deployment of these robots, few studies have conceptualised the pathways through which they affect quality of life. This article reviews literature in this area and proposes strategies for future mobile service robot development. Design/methodology/approach: A comprehensive literature search was conducted on Web of Science, CINAHL, APA, PsycINFO, IEEE Xplore and Science Direct to identify relevant articles. A narrative approach was adopted to review the literature. Findings: In total, 41 full-text items were reviewed, including quantitative and qualitative empirical studies. Results found that mobile service robots have the potential to improve the quality of life of people with dementia through seven pathways. The most common pathways were leisure, work, social relationships and emotional responses. Several articles observed that mobile service robots enhanced quality of life via mobility and health. Only limited articles discussed the pathway of residential well-being. Research limitations/implications: Future research on the relationship of mobile service robots and quality of life should include more randomised controlled trials, longer study periods and larger sample size of older people, especially those living with dementia. Implications for future robot development could benefit from a socio-technical systems perspective, participatory design processes and value of human care. Originality/value: The comprehensive identification of pathways contributes to future directions for developing mobile service robots that are responsive to raising the quality of life of people with dementia in long-term care settings.